The present invention generally relates to fiber optic communication, and more particularly relates to a multimode optical fiber that may be particularly useful for use for wavelength division multiplexing in the 1310 nm and/or the 1550 nm window.
High performance computing and data center installations typically require a large number of processor-to-processor interconnections, and using multimode (MM) optical fibers in these systems is cost-effective due to more relaxed alignment tolerances due to the large core diameter. These systems typically operate in the 850 nm wavelength window, utilizing relatively inexpensive VCSEL laser sources. Optical fiber has relatively high dispersion at 850 nm, and this leads to rapid broadening of the optical signals. This high dispersion is a key limitation for the maximum system length, particularly at data modulation rates of 25 GHz and higher. In addition, the fiber attenuation is relatively high at 850 nm, and this negatively impacts the performance when the system length is more than a few tens of meters.